LPE Blog

Weekly Roundup: June 26, 2020

By Editors

This week, The Blog hosted the first part of a symposium on socialist constitutionalism. Willy Forbath kicked off the series with a two–part post revisiting the Weimar constitution and its efforts to create a structure for worker participation in multiple levels of government, including in the firm. Sam Moyn responded with notes of skepticism about…. . .

Symposium

Socialism Past and Future – or Socialism is Past, and the Future?

By Álvaro Santos

In Forbath’s telling, Weimar is not a cautionary tale but an opportunity for a do over. There’s much to like, and learn, from rekindling this vision of social democracy. In what follows, I invite other characters to this story, drawing from Mexico’s constitutional history, and raise a few questions about the limits of the social democratic bequest. . .

Symposium

The Relevance of Weimar

By Samuel Moyn

Willy Forbath’s return to the Weimar Constitution is inspiring. I will just point out of a couple of limits to turning back to it in the present — limits that strike me as difficult to overcome.

Symposium

Socialism Past and Future (Part II of II)

By William E. Forbath

In my last post, I began a discussion of the Weimar Constitution as one of the first constitutions containing provisions for social and economic rights (SER), and perhaps the very first one, in which socialists had an important hand drafting and expounding. The literature on constitutional SER misses a great deal when it casts the Weimar Constitution as. . .

Symposium

Socialism Past and Future (Part I of II)

By William E. Forbath

Socialism is back. But what is socialism? We have forgotten a lot about what it meant in its salad days, a century ago. And what we have forgotten may include what might be compelling today.

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: June 18 (Juneteenth), 2020

By LPE Editors

Happy Juneteenth, everybody. See y’all in the streets. Look, we’re doing our second weekly roundup in a row! Surely this will last forever. This week at the blog: Brian Highsmith (returning LPE champion) explored the promise of and barriers to restructuring state budgets in this abolitionist moment. Amna Akbar reflected on the abolitionist moment. . .

Announcement

Zoom Event Next Wednesday: “Regulation and the Geography of Inequality” with Sitaraman Ricks, and Serkin

By LPE Editors

The LPE Project is hosting Zoom-based conversations with leading scholars throughout the summer (full schedule & details still coming soon!). Our second event will take place, June 24th at 8pm ET with Ganesh Sitaraman, Morgan Ricks, and Christopher Serkin, discussing their forthcoming article “Regulation and the Geography of. . .

Essay

Read Amna Akbar on the Abolitionist Moment at NYRB!

By Amna Akbar

We are assured Amna will have more to say here at the Blog, but for now check out her account of the abolitionist movement has developed into the type of coalition that can make real change in this moment.

Symposium

On Reimagining State and Local Budgets in an Abolitionist Moment

By Brian Highsmith

Fiscal structures and funding priorities that local public finance experts have long taken to be intractable are being challenged by a new generation. Although the scale of these actions certainly is new, community groups and local activists have long used tax and budget advocacy as a means for abolitionist organizing.

Weekly Roundup

A Very Special Weekly Roundup: Meet the New Editorial Team

By LPE Editors

Despite several previous attempts, weekly roundups have never exactly been a weekly phenomenon here at the LPE Blog. Like New Year’s resolutions to exercise regularly, we keep starting out with good intentions and an initial consistency in fulfilling them, only to find ourselves staring at a pile of un-rounded-up weeks wondering what happened. But. . .

Symposium

Who Should Pay for Police Misconduct?

By Joanna Schwartz

George Floyd’s family will almost certainly bring a lawsuit against Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, the three officers on the scene who stood by, and the City as a whole. Assuming Floyd’s family prevails, who will foot the bill? And who should?

Symposium

We Cannot Prosecute Our Way to Making Black Lives Matter

By Kate Levine

Cities across the country are in turmoil after the cold-blooded killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. While the protests are motivated by and calling for a range of solutions to the ongoing problem of police brutality, the loudest call is for accountability in the form of criminal charges against the officers involved in Floyd’s death.. . .

Symposium

Don’t Reform Policing, Transform It

By Jocelyn Simonson

There is a distressing disconnect between the ringing demands for justice on the streets and the suite of “police reform” proposals that many experts say satisfy these demands.

Symposium

The Many Forms of Police Violence

By Monica Bell

Over the past week, there has been unprecedented acknowledgment of the physical violence that Black people in America have faced, for generations, at the hands of police. While this is an important development, the work to eradicate police violence will not be complete if the public remains concerned only with the most visually and viscerally jarring forms. . .

Essay

Flattening the Curve and Closing the Gap: The Civil Rights of Health During a Global Pandemic

By Angela P. Harris, Aysha Pamukcu

“We’re all in this together” has become a familiar call for strengthening our sense of community and social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this phrase can obscure deep social inequities, this recognition of our interdependence presents an opportunity to connect economic justice and public health. COVID-19 has instilled a. . .

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